Chicago Transit Authority (1969)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2002 reissue.

So I've conditioned myself to pick up anything released by Rhino that I see in the used bins. So while I've got the hits from this CD on compilations, I couldn't resist this for $3:

Prog rock with horns, it's a good album, especially for a debut (it really takes some balls to put out a double LP debut). Still, like most double album sets, this would have made a spectacular single disc by getting rid of the "jam band" and vanity cuts:

Side One (approximately 22.5 minutes):

1. Introduction
2. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
3. Beginnings
4. Listen

Side Two (approximately 19.5 minutes):

1. Questions 67 And 68
2. South California Purples
3. I'm a Man

But nobody asked me, probably because I was two years old when this thing was released (although there might have been other reasons I wasn't consulted). Still, I'm glad I picked it up to find a few album cuts with which I was previously unfamiliar: Introduction, Listen, and the bluesy South California Purples. I'm not wild about Poem 58 and Free Form Guitar.

Released in April, this is definitely a summer album.

Billboard, May 19, 1969

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #17

Tracks: see above

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: The song Beginnings reminds me of a couples trip to Matagorda Beach during the Lost Summer of Mark. I took along my cassette copy of Chicago IX; Beginnings and the Steve Winwood hit Roll With It led to some sort of disagreement/fight with my companion.  But I suppose that bad memory isn't really associated with this CD so nevermind.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Only The Beginning: The Very Best Of Chicago (2002)
Greatest Hits 1982-1989 (1989)
Chicago 17 (1984)
Chicago 16 (1982)